My Strength My Pillar
by stargazer06
Summary: Two people who loved another deeply but was one-sided, manage to find love in each other. Each helps the other to move on from the past and continue to live. One gives strength; the other becomes a personal pillar to ease the weight and keep the other standing strong.


Vincent Valentine stood before the altar in complete nervousness. He the great, powerful, dark, broody, silent, unattached, supposed to be dead, scary "vampire" gunslinger who can transform into four blood-thirsty killing beasts. Yep. Vincent Valentine was nervous.

Why you ask and what's up with the altar? Well, what do you think? No, no one is performing a sacrifice or performing some dark magic spell to return some powerful being to destroy the world.

Marriage! Seems nigh impossible for the crimson ex-Turk to be getting married, doesn't it? And who was able to love such a man who basically had eternal life due to Hojo's experiments?

Silence fell as all turned to gaze at the beauty who stood in the entrance. Her dress was simple so nothing could distract all from the bride herself. It slide against her slim, fit form until the front trailed off at her ankles. The short train dragged a little on the carpet. Her veil reached down to her chin. Behind that veil were the eyes that had first grabbed his attention, and it wasn't the color but rather the emotions she tried to keep locked away.

Knee length chocolate hair that's normally down was curled, tied up decoratively, and few strands framed her face. Adorning her neck was a necklace with a scarlet heart that bore a keyhole. Hanging beside the heart was a crimson key. Her ears held precious pearl drop earrings.

He forgot all things, his mind a blank, except for the smiling lovely lady who saved him from disappearing from the world. After assisting Avalanche in saving the world from complete annihilation, he planned to return to his prison. It had been a success for a month until some female discovered his whereabouts and pestered him nearly every day. Half the time she spoke friendly; the other half was brutal, honest truths that occasionally was accompanied by trained fists that jolted him back into the living world. She pulled him from his darkness and taught him how to live once again. He felt from within her a strength he had never felt before. A strength he needed to continue on, something to keep him grounded to the world of the living. Without it, he would drift through time without a single care of what might happen to him or the world.

What felt all too soon to him, she left to reopen her restaurant in Midgard as it had once been destroyed during the falling of the Plates. He remained for a time until his comrades convinced him to "Live like a normal human being instead of some freaky, blood sucking vampire, Sunshine! You're scaring the daylights out of the townspeople! In fact, I'm headin down to that coffin and destroyin it just to make sure you don't go sleepin on us until the world blows up!" Apart from a few visits from Cid, checking to see if the vampire was turning as human as possible, peace lived for a short time until the planet faced terror again from the trio clones of Sephiroth. When that was resolved another disaster arose to keep the gunslinger busy. Deep Ground arose and as before, evil destroyed, peace returned. Despite all these things going on, Vincent managed to see or visit that certain female a few times.

Once it was certain the planet was definitely safe, Vincent chose to keep an eye on that lady who made an old feeling resurface. The feeling of love made him uneasy, but he knew he couldn't live without her. She had given him the strength to live on, and now she was his strength. She was his reason to live. This love toward her was the real, authentic love!

However, she had been a pillar for so long to those whom she held dear that she was cracking beneath the weight of it all. No one held her up and steady. It was through sheer will she managed to stay up for so long. Not wanting to see her crumble, he became a pillar to keep her steady, whether she saw him or not. She gave much, never expecting to receive. Now it was time to give her what was due, and he gave out of respect and love.

Tifa Lockhart had dreamed as a child she would one day marry her best friend, Cloud Strife, especially after he promised to be her shining knight who'd come rescue her from peril. Never once had it vanished. She watched him leave to enter the SOLDIER program, survived Nibelheim being burned to the ground, and rescued the entire planet from madmen and total destruction. It hurt deeply when she saw Cloud and Aerith falling in love; the pain worsened with the flower girl's death, which caused Cloud to fall into despair. Yet her dream stayed despite the events.

One thing she had not calculated to disrupt her dream was for an ebony haired man with crimson mako eyes to find a spot within her locked heart. That little spot hid and slowly grew, awaiting for the right moment to fully bloom. At first she was intrigued by him and wondered what happened to leave him sleeping and atoning within a coffin in her hometown for far longer than she had lived. Intrigue turned into desirable friendship. The day he considered her a friend she was ecstatic, proud, and that little spot in her heart fluttered.

At the end of the journey she resided in the very replica of her home. For an entire month she lived there until whispers came of a ghost once again haunting the Shrina Mansion. Suspicious, she ventured forth to find Vincent imprisoning himself to his past. Next few months she spent visiting and helping him return to the present living world. Occasionally, her visits required a delivery of some well laid punches, which he thanked her months later.

Soon she left for Midgar as she tried to move from her past and continue living. She had chosen to reopen a new 7th Heaven and made sure the building had a second floor designed as a house with few guest rooms. Cloud came to reside with her and help her financially with his own courier business. Marlene was dropped off for long periods of time. Denzel was adopted. One would think they were a family and Tifa truly felt like they were. All seemed perfect for her.

It wasn't so as Cloud hardly stayed in the house, opting to stay at Aerith's church. He distanced himself, seeking a way to be forgiven. His actions created a big crack in her structure. It didn't help much when those Sephiroth clones attacked. Even after saving the planet a second time, Cloud wanted to remain only a friend to her. Her dreams shattered and so was her will to live. Why must this happen to her? She who gave so much of herself to all around her? It just wasn't fair!

Vincent's occasional, brief visits managed to pull her back together for a short duration before she felt herself falling again. It helped her get through the attacks of Deep Ground. It was afterwards, she could see and feel all the cracks in herself. Cloud decided to live on his own, Marlene was spending more time with her papa, Denzel switched homes between she and Cloud, and all her friends were happy and content with the lives they lived. Only she was unhappy and tired. At such a down time in her life, Vincent surprisingly visited her more often and played the role she had for him back in Nibelheim. A part of her wanted to laugh at their reversed roles. She had been a source of strength for him in his time of need. Now he was becoming a pillar for her to keep her standing straight and strong. He relieved her of most of the burden she had born for many years.

Love blossomed rapidly between the two warriors. Happiness found them enjoying every single day they managed to live. Tifa managed the restaurant while teaching martial arts as a side job; Vincent helped Tifa train her more excelled students when possible, train new Turks, and did some missions for the Turks. Vincent soon had the courage to propose to the woman who had also intrigued him upon first sight. Tifa burst in tears and gladly accepted. So here they were standing in a church about to get married.

Tifa walked down the aisle with Barrett proudly beside her as her father figure. He slowly gave her to Vincent and lowly grumbled that she better be taken care of. Tifa smile and rolled her eyes at her "father" while Vincent raised an elegant eyebrow as if asking, "You doubt me, after all the happiness I brought to her since discovering our feelings toward each other?" Barrett saw their reactions, only to grumble once more before sitting.

Desiring to see her face clearly, Vincent disregarded the traditional timing of veil lifting and lifted it. Both hearts beat fast together. The voice of the preacher was droned out. Only they two existed at the moment. Love. True love. A love they both had desired and waited for for so long. Now they had it and stood before the other to show and fulfill that love. Not having heard the preacher and not knowing where he currently was at, both disregarded him and traditional all together and kissed with all the built up passion within them. A few snickers were heard along with whispers of those betting if the love birds would follow tradition and wait to kiss or forget all and kiss whenever.

In that kiss was all the words they would have said in their vows and so much more that was only between them. Life had a whole new meaning to them. It was precious and promised to cherish it.

"You are my strength, Tifa."

"You are my pillar, Vincent."

Each helped the other to stand strong and live.

* * *

Author's Note: I really love this couple and read so many fanfics! Each time I read a fantastic story, I wanted to write one myself. At last I did so and am so happy to have accomplished it! *squeals in delight* written in somewhat two days and idea came rather easily, which is bonus for me, not to mention I managed to keep it short, which is a great struggle for me. All my story ideas tend to be longer than intended.

Forgive me for any errors of names, groups, or events from the games/movie. Never played, only seen Advent Children possibly 3 times. I decided to keep Tifa's hair from the game as opposed to the movie.

Please review!


End file.
